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Perestroika
- renewal, Glasnost - openness
Michail Sergejevic Gorbachev, Soviet President 1985-91, is no doubt
the greatest contributor to the end of the Cold War and most certainly
to the relatively peaceful last two decennia of the 20th century (peaceful
except for the war battles in the Middle East and the Balkans inspired
and fought by western Allied forces against Iraq and parts of the former
Yugoslavia). A very intelligent realist, practical and very diplomatic
leader who succeeded Brezhnev as head of the Communist Party and the
Soviet Union, Gorbachev conceived and tactfully introduced "Perestroika"
- a reconstruction or renewal of the socialist principle. Born in Stavropol
in the northern Caucasus in 1931 to a farming family that had suffered
severely in the Marxist-Leninist domination of Russia. As communism
expanded, overwhelmed the neighbouring countries to form the Soviet
Union and imposed iron-fist totalitarian, a centrally planned system
emerged under Stalin - the despotic leader in whose regime more than
15 million people perished and another 16 million were imprisoned. Excluding
the world war casualties of 20 million, it is estimated that up to 65
million dead resulted from the soviet experiment with communism before
Gorbachev dismantled the Soviet Union in 1989. In Perestroika, Gorbachev
envisioned "glasnost" or openness as a way to combat the rustic, secretive,
excessively bureaucratic soviet administration that severely crippled
production, sustained corruption, wrecked the economy and the environment,
alienated farmers, workers and the common man and induced distrust at
all levels of human contact; not the least of which international distrust.
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Polarized world - East against West. Back
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The Communist Revolution of 1917, two Germany-instigated world wars
and the resulting western response in Allied armament (NATO) and world
politics, had produced a most dangerously polarized world of East and
West deeply engaged in a cold war. The soviet boundary - the iron curtain
- marked the edge of the eastern block. The USA and its allies in the
western block dominated world opinion through new information media.
New York subways were carrying huge posters to remind the American population
that the soviets had twice to thrice the weapons required to destroy
the USA, but that the USA had enough weapons to destroy the Soviet Union
eight times over. At least in all major US cities and certainly in all
west European settlements, radioactive fallout shelters were set up
as places of refuge in case of a soviet attack which never came. Even
till now (2002), every Dutch town still sounds its serene alarm-drill
weekly or monthly, to ensure preparedness of its citizens for any enemy
air attacks. Measured against this background, the success of Perestroika
and Glasnost goes far beyond the three-headed policy that Gorbachev
deployed to change soviet culture, politics and economy. For he, more
than anyone else in the last century, genuinely sought, conscientiously
negotiated and vigorously implemented a disarmament plan aimed at neutral
world peace, beyond purely nationalistic interests. Shallow American
self interest as pursued by US president George W. Bush is in sharp
contrast to Gorbachev's outstandingly constructive diplomacy. Back
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Decolonising the Eastern block Back
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As if that does not already make him a hero of mankind, let us add that
Gorbachev very articulately encouraged the member states of the Soviet
Union to free themselves of Russian domination and seek self determination.
This policy did have a tremendous benevolent impact on countries like
Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Cambodia,
Georgia, and many more of the 130 peoples previously under the soviet
umbrella, as is evident in the present trend of their political and
economic progress. Gorbachev will go down in history as the man whose
Perestroika opened the way for the reunification of East and West Germany,
the overthrow of Ceauceausci's reckless dictatorship in Rumania, the
reunion of North and South Vietnam, the new openness of contacts between
North and South Korea and the withdrawal of Soviet economic sponsorship
of Fidel Castro's dictatorship over Cuba. The recent dissolution of
former Tito-dominated Yugoslavia into self-governing nations would not
have been possible if soviet imposed communism had not been pulled down
by Gorbachev's "glasnost". In fact, the recent wars in Slovenia, Croatia,
Bosnia and Kosovo, were the direct result of Serbian political overlords
attempting to retain their communist era stronghold on these peoples
against their will, to the unfair advantage of Serbia. Back
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Benefits of Openness: Back
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Gorbachev deserves praise as the one truly world-class politician who
held world interest above personal and national interest in his incessant
negotiation of disarmament with the USA, with western Europe and within
the United Nations disarmament program against nuclear proliferation
in the 20th century. A drastic reduction of the 17 million man soviet
civil service and, democratic improvements helped open the way for the
voice of opposition, enabled private entrepreneurship, opened up business
access to private capital including the stock market and saw an open
return of the public to the churches. These are present realities that
were absolutely unthinkable before Gorbachev's "perestroika". Ensuing
relative tolerance of press freedom makes the exposure of various Mafia
practices possible, just as the freer movement of people opens up new
horizons for self development and the absorption of technology from
other countries; quite apart from the direct impacts of better international
trade with the wider non-Soviet world. Back
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Soviet Communist Socialist failure: Back
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At the root of what went wrong in the 70-year soviet drama that held
1/7th of the earth surface backwards unnecessarily, is the fact that
Leninist Communist principles and centralized planning were based on
untested theories formulated by Karl Marx and Engel using western European
industrialized development history which Lenin and Stalin applied to
heavily agricultural Slavic-Asiatic eastern society, thereby ignoring
essential cultural and infrastructural differences. This spelt disaster
by creating egocentric, deceptive, hypocritical, unreliable officials
with no initiative, rude, without conscience and yet pretending to have
monopoly of the truth.The threat of Gorbachev's policy to these corrupt
party fanatics, accounts for his impopularity among the very Russian
society he has done so much for. In the west, his far reaching disarmament
has dealt a blow to the weapon industry that now finds new chances in
their lobby with George W. Bush.
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Readings: Extracts from: Back
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- Gorbatsjov en de vorming van het nieuwe Rusland by Harrie Salman
(ISBN 90 -73020-02-6) Carrousel Amsterdam 1990).
- Perestroika - a vision for my country and the world by Michail Gorbachev
1987
- Michail S. Gorbachev - An intimate biography by the editors of Time
1988.
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Perestroika (renewal), glasnost (openness)
Polarized
world East against West Decolonising
the Eastern block Benefits
of Openness Soviet
Communist Socialist failure 